I’ve never been much of a gamer. The idea of more computer time at night, after spending an entire work day on a computer has little appeal for me.

Until I saw, or more accurately, heard, SpaceTeam. My little cousins were gathered in a circle, yelling out commands to each other, swiping their devices, and pushing toward the elusive goal of HYPERSPACE.

Set the Duotronic Capacitor to 2!

They’re all on a malfunctioning spaceship, attempting to escape from a black hole. The only way they will survive is to work together.

It’s called a collaborative shouting game for phones and tablets.

Commands whiz across each players’ device, but here’s the tricky part: their fellow players are the only ones who can carry out those commands. And, there’s a time crunch since the black hole is pulling at the ship the entire time!

Calibrate the Hypersonic Thrusters to 3!

Each player has to see their own commands, yell out those commands for their fellow players to execute, and also be listening to the other players’ commands that they can execute on their device.

Disengage the Warp Transponders!

As I watched them play, I thought the game looked like a fun way to practice reading, and learn about team work…and have some fun.

Then, they asked me to play.

My first thought was, “I’m not much of a gamer. I probably have something else I should be doing.” But, when do I get an opportunity to play a game with my cousins (who range in age from 5 to 11 years old)…especially where they’re teaching me how to play.

Remember to remove the slime!

Did I mention the slime? As the game progresses, minor problems start to impact your device. The game controls come unhinged and swing on the screen. Slime oozes across the controls. The slime can be cleared by swiping it away, but that distracts from reading your commands. It also distracts from hearing your teammates’ commands and executing them as quickly as possible.

This game is a lot harder than it looks! Like most things in life, spectating is much easier than playing.

Set the Flux Beam to 2!

Luckily, my team is strong and capable. While I’m distracted with slime and repairing my control screen, they’re executing commands flawlessly. I can hear the patience in their voices as they repeat their commands. A sense of calm hovers over us amidst the yelling of commands. We just might make it to HYPERSPACE!

Disengage the Tripolimer Conduits!

Do the commands have any rhyme or reason? Does it really matter? This is a crisis! We don’t have time! Our survival is at stake!

Sci-fi fans will recognize many of the words, but that won’t help you. Your ability to quiet your mind, focus on your screen, and listen to your teammates will determine your success. That and your teammates’ ability to do the same thing.

You win as a team and lose as a team. Sound familiar?

If one player is weaker than the others, it’s up to the team to deal with it by executing what they can as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Deploy the Solar Sail!

Do you work with and trust others to achieve your goals?

Do you find a sense of calm and confidence when relying on your teammates to perform?

Are you dealing with “slime” in your life as you work to achieve your goals?

Are you called upon to deliver results without enough time, even when things are a little chaotic and difficult?

Do you allow yourself to be lifted-up by your team when you fall short of their expectations?

SpaceTeamwill give you practice on all of these questions…and it’s lots of fun!

HYPERSPACE!

How’d we do? I’m pretty sure I was the weak link. We made it to HYPERSPACE anyway. It pays to be on a strong team! We didn’t get to play a second round because the evil Schedule Monster emerged from the shadows to remind us about the event we were attending.

Humans are more sensitive to the suck than the awesome. We thrive on the negative. Bad news travels fastest. We assume and discount good news, so we don’t put much effort into spreading it…even to ourselves.

Measuring the suck is arbitrary and subjective. Something that sucked only 1% last week may suck 95% today when that 90-minute commute causes you to miss your daughter’s award ceremony.

Are you considering a job change? Just thinking about it means you’ve decided that the suck ratio is getting too high in your current job. So, a new opportunity or a new direction seems like a good idea.

The new opportunities have their own suck, whether you choose to see it or not. Sure, they have things you appreciate, but it’s easy to overvalue the good stuff and minimize the parts that suck.

It’s human nature to see only the “good” stuff that’s happening over there…and see only the things that suck, happening here.

The grass usually isn’t greener over there (wherever “there” is). It’s usually just another shade of green that looks greener today. The suck ratio is in play over there just as much as it is where you’re standing.

Does this mean we should never change jobs or career paths? Hardly. But, it’s important to keep some things in mind:

Every job has a suck ratio.

It’ll take a lot longer than you think to get good at your new job. Even longer before you become great at it. Until then, it’s suck ratio will be higher than you like.

It’s hard to see the suck from the outside. Suck only shows itself once you’re on the inside when it’s too late.

Don’t measure the suck every day. Suck measures are only accurate over the long-term.

It’s easy to find something that sucks today if we look hard enough. It’s just as easy to find something that’s awesome.

The effort we put into the search for suck or awesome dictates the one we find the most. That’s true for jobs, too.

“On your marks!”

“Get set!”

Most starters wait about 1.4 seconds after the “Get set” command to fire the start gun.

The silence freezes us in time. We listen for the first hint of sound from the gun. Breath relaxed but held. The faint sound of a heartbeat in our ears.

We visualize our next move even as that second moves slowly in the distance.

Everything has led to this moment. Everything is this moment. All the training. All the drills. The intervals. The stretching. My coach’s advice. All my doubts. All my hopes.

What will the next second bring? Will I exit the blocks cleanly? Will I stay within myself to the finish line? Will I run my own race? Am I good enough? Can I dominate?

I love starting lines. A quiet eternity of 1.4 seconds plays out for all to see.

You can learn a lot about yourself in 1.4 seconds. What you say to yourself is critical. Are you asking questions or making declarations?

Imagine asking what the next second will bring and giving yourself nothing but answers. I will exit the blocks cleanly. I will stay within myself to the finish line. This is MY race to win. I’m definitely good enough, in fact, I’m amazing! I will dominate!

When it’s time to deliver, time to start your race, time to show what you’ve got…that’s when the questions must exit your mind.

Questions at the starting line raise doubt and inspire needless fear.

The gun fires!

Go run your race.

Photo Credit–Unsplash.com, Braden Collum—why this photo?

I looked for photos of a bunch of sprinters in the “set” stance. I found a few, but none grabbed me. This one gets to the heart of the matter. It’s just you in the blocks, alone with your thoughts. I also focused on the baton. Although we run alone, most great things are created by a team. We must be prepared to make a smooth hand-off when the time comes.

Take a good look at that picture. Let it burn onto your consciousness.

As the world becomes smaller, and yet, more remote; as customers become closer, and yet, more distant; as you begin to blend in with everyone else…

Service is all you have to actually differentiate yourself.

When anyone can provide what you provide, do what you do, be what you want to be, your focus on service is all that matters.

How does an individual compete against a huge, well-entrenched company? By providing better service. Being more responsive, more flexible, and more personally accountable.

How does a huge, well-entrenched company compete against the scrappy upstart individual? By providing better service. Being more responsive, more flexible, and more personally accountable.

Sound familiar?

Who has the advantage in this battle to provide the best service?

The one that actually lives a service-first mindset. The one that considers the customer’s perspective before their own. The one that delivers excellent service…every time. The one who knows that no company can survive or thrive if it forgets about creating an excellent experience for their customer.

Customers always have an alternative. If your organization isn’t committed to making their experience an excellent one, they’ll figure it out quickly and choose an alternative. It’s that simple.

It all comes down to execution, which comes from your uncompromising mindset toward service excellence.

Service is your only advantage. It’s the same advantage everyone else has if they choose to execute on it.

In the 80’s, the message was, “Dress for Success.” Dress at least one level up, make a great impression, get promoted. The concept focused on impressing the gatekeeper (your boss, or your boss’s boss), moving up, achieving success. “Upwardly mobile” was a phrase people used to describe themselves. Inherent in this approach was the thought that your success was dictated by how far up you climbed in one organization.

In the 90’s, the message was, “Be nimble, move fast, deliver quality.” Tom Peters really came into focus in the 90’s with his thoughts on the “nanosecond” 90’s. Big companies needed to find ways to “bob and weave,” to adjust to the ever-changing market dynamics. We all searched for ways to shift paradigms, boost quality, and invent new ways of streamlining processes.

One by-product of this nimble and fast-moving behavior was rapid employee movement. Corporate downsizing, upsizing, and reorganizations, along with an even faster corporate merger and acquisition pace, made remaining in one organization for a lifetime as remote as winning the lottery.

Dress for Success was out. Upward mobility was out. The era of the entrepreneur was upon us (even though it had been with us since the dawn of civilization). The corporate version, the “intrapreneur,” became a big thing. This was the person in the meeting who was slightly quirky, a bit edgy and imaginative, and didn’t mind “poking the bear” a bit. He or she operated with a flair that the corporate mindset both embraced and slightly feared. This was the person that would help the corporation remain relevant in the face of fast-moving competition, but might upset the apple cart along the way.

Somewhere in the late 90’s or early 2,000’s I started hearing that we should “think outside the box.” “Think Different” became Apple’s calling card. It was only that type of thinking that would yield meaningful results. Anything else was just window dressing, or “lipstick on a pig.” Look at the top 10 companies in terms of market value (both public and private) and it’s hard to argue with this sentiment.

But, even those “renegade” companies struggle to stay “different” over the long term. What once seemed new, even revolutionary, becomes the new norm. Soon, there’s a clamor for the next version, the new invention, the new product, the next “thing.”

What’s the answer to all of this? Organizations and entrepreneurs try to operate “outside of their comfort zone.” Yeah! That’s the ticket. If we can get everyone pushing outside their comfort zone, maybe that will result in something different, and cajole some new ideas into fruition.

But, the truth is that none of us like it outside our comfort zone. Most companies and shareholders prefer their comfort zone as well.

We constantly seek our comfort zone, even as we talk about pushing ourselves outside of it. If we happen to venture out and actually operate for a while in the hinterlands, our deep subconscious goal is to regain our footing, by seeking approval or acceptance of our crazy ideas back in the comfort zone.

We may get used to operating in a new zone and call that our new comfort zone…but, it’s still our (new) comfort zone. This is one definition of progress.

People have varying perspectives on what’s comfortable. The free climber is happiest and most “alive” when climbing a 3,000-foot rock face without ropes. Another person’s comfort zone is speaking in front of a large audience. Still another person’s idea of comfort is analyzing reams of financial data about the performance of their company.

What is your comfort zone? When are you the most at ease?

What are you doing to operate outside that zone?

When you find yourself outside your comfort zone, what’s your goal? To return to the safety of the comfort zone, or to extend your reach to an even more uncomfortable spot?

Look closely and be honest with yourself. You’re probably spending most of your time inside your comfort zone or trying to find your way back there.

“Thems was fightin’ words” in our house when I was a kid. If mom ever heard us utter those two words, she had a list of things for us to do. We learned quickly to find things to do for ourselves, since mom’s list was definitely not a fun list (toilets, folding clothes, raking leaves, etc.).

I remember one summer, probably the one between 7th and 8th grade. Our little crew had a solid plan every day. It usually involved taking a mid-day “break” to watch Get Smart at Denis’ house. I’m pretty sure they ran two episodes, back-to-back. So, that took care of about an hour of entertainment. The rest is a blur of football games, hide-and-seek, swimming at Marty’s, riding bikes, and just about anything else that would keep us from having to say, “I’m bored.”

I suppose it’s all those years of training, followed by “advanced” training in college, and then even more in the work environment.

Stay busy.

Keep moving.

There’s always something to be done.

Don’t be lazy.

If you aren’t busy, you better at least look busy.

Where’s your work ethic?

Aren’t you dedicated to this cause?

Focus on the task at hand!

Don’t be boring (even worse than being bored)!

Somewhere along the way, a lack of movement, or a completed task list, started to equate with the dreaded “b” word. Somehow, a lack of movement turned into an example of laziness.

Is it even possible to do nothing and be at peace with it? Or, do we have to tell ourselves that this momentary lack of movement is just a quick break before returning to another of life’s endless tasks?

When did doing nothing go from being a peaceful state to one of guilty boredom…or worse, an example of our laziness? When did life become a task list?

The next time I’m faced with the challenge of doing absolutely nothing, I hereby promise myself that I won’t be bored (or guilty about my laziness).